


lookin' for love in alderaan places

by thirtypercentdone



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gratuitous Star Wars References, Kinda, Lesbian Pidge, M/M, Slice of Life, a little ooc, broganes, like wayyy too many star wars references, shadam but blink and you'll miss it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:26:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24497188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirtypercentdone/pseuds/thirtypercentdone
Summary: “I’m begging you to stop.”, Keith groans.Lance’s grin widens in a way that’s strangely familiar, but not something Keith has ever been on the receiving end of, “There are other things I could make you-”Lance proceeds to snap his mouth shut, looking like he’d just been dunked in a bucket of ice-water.Keith can only manage an embarrassed laugh, “Oh my god.”Lance flushes, eyes fixed on a spot above Keith’s shoulder as his posture goes rigid. “Nope, shut up.”“You were about to hit on me!”“It was a reflex! Muscle memory!”, Lance replies, face growing more crimson with each passing second."Sure it was."
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 279





	lookin' for love in alderaan places

**Author's Note:**

> (Yes, the title is a star wars reference) 
> 
> Just the space family having fun and being out of mortal peril.

Okay, so Keith’s life kind of fucking sucks, whatever, he can deal. 

Then there’s this speaker at his school, and he talks about the stars, about flying in different solar systems, far away from this shitty small town in Texas. 

_ The Galaxy Garrison.  _

Keith sends his letter in the second applications open, having worked on his essay for months, he steals a suit from foster-dad-of-the-week for his interview and tries very hard not to look like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs when all he sees in the waiting room are people with shiny watches and both of their parents by their side. 

He rips the letter open with his teeth, alone in his room. 

_ “Mr. Kogane, we are glad to inform you that-”  _

  
  
  


\------

There’s an older cadet who stubbornly refuses to leave Keith the fuck alone, Shirogane. 

Whenever Keith is on the track running until his brain stops working, he’s there, when Keith is in the mess hall trying desperately to avoid any kind of social interaction, he’s there. But most inconveniently, whenever Keith thinks he has a handle on a situation and he absolutely doesn’t, this guy just freaking  _ white-knight’s for him like- _

Keith turns around, snapping, “Okay  _ what  _ is your deal?” 

Shirogane, rather uncharacteristically, rolls his eyes, “My deal? Those guys were about to-” 

“I had it under control-” 

“Yeah, looked super controlled.” 

There’s a pause where Keith tries and fails to swallow his frustration, “I don’t need your help.” 

“Look, maybe if you knew how to defend yourself-” 

“I’m  _ fine.”  _

The officer looks a little amused, his expression softening, “You have a knife, what was your plan? Stab them?” 

“I-...”, he pauses, genuinely at a loss. 

“That’s what I thought, look, kid-” 

“Don’t call me a kid-”, Keith spits. 

Shirogane continues, ignoring the interruption, “-You don’t want to hurt those guys, do you?” 

Keith refuses to dignify that with a response for a minute before giving in, “No.”

He nods, “Good, then you’ll let me train you.” 

“I never agreed to anything like that-” 

“Meet me on the training deck tomorrow before lunch, bring a water bottle.” 

“Shiro-” 

The officer turns before continuing down the hall, “Call me Takashi.” 

_ There is no way I’m- _

_ \----- _

Keith meets him on the training deck. 

\-----

“Who’s that?”, Shiro asks one day, gesturing across the mess hall to the cargo pilot who declared Keith his “rival” or something. 

“No idea.”, he’s lying. He knows it’s Lance who he only really has one class with, but makes himself impossible to forget. 

“You sure? Because he seems to know who  _ you  _ are.” 

He’s referring to ten minutes earlier when Lance had asked Keith what he’d gotten on the last astronomy test and seemed shocked when Keith had replied,  _ “None of your fucking business.”  _

(97, he got a 97, but Lance didn’t need to know that.)

Keith remains stubbornly silent. 

“I’m just saying it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make friends with some of the other cadets.” 

Keith rolls his eyes, “Oh yeah he seemed  _ super  _ interested in being my friend.” 

“Maybe he is, maybe he’s intimidated.” 

“Why?” 

Shiro sighs, “Keith, come on, you know why.” 

He does. 

Keith shakes his head, and says a little more aggressively than is strictly necessary, “Whatever, I don’t need new friends.” 

Shiro raises his hands in mock surrender, “Okay, I’ll drop it.” 

\------

“ _ God,  _ he’s so….so-” 

“Cute?” 

Keith sputters, “What? No!” 

Shiro raises an eyebrow, “Then why do you keep talking about him?” 

“I don’t! He’s just made it his mission to make my life harder!” 

“Sounds like a bit of healthy competition.” 

Keith groans into Shiro’s couch cushion, “I don’t even  _ have  _ a mullet.” 

Adam, who Keith is becoming almost friendly with, comes into the room, locking eyes with Shiro for a minute before sighing, “Lance again?” 

Shiro nods solemnly, something like amusement flitting across his face for a moment before he turns his attention back to Keith, “Don’t you guys only have one class together?” 

“ _ Yes!  _ Exactly! But he keeps finding me in the library, and the mess hall, and the-” 

“Sounds like somebody has a crush.”, Adam remarks casually, before sitting in the chair across from the couch Keith has  _ (Not dramatically, shut up, Takashi) _ collapsed onto. 

“Why do you guys keep pushing this? He’s not even…”, he trails off, the unspoken words hanging heavily in the air. 

“You don’t know that.” 

Keith can practically feel his face going red  _ (with anger or embarrassment, he doesn’t know)  _ “Well I don’t care if he is anyway! He’s annoying and obnoxious and-” 

Shiro cuts him off, “Okay, we get it.” 

“You know-”, Adam starts, “There was this cadet in my second year, he was obnoxious too.” 

Keith sits up, his interest peaked, “Oh yeah?” 

Adam rolls his eyes almost fondly, “Yeah, he never left me alone, and he was stupidly competitive, always inviting me to sit with his friends, to beat his score in the flight simulator-” 

“Sounds familiar.”, Keith scoffs, before the knowing expression on Adam’s face hits him at full force, “Oh no-” 

“And now-”, He says, turning his gaze towards Shiro, “We’re getting married in the spring”

Shiro smiles softly and Keith almost feels like he has to look away. He buries his head in the pillow again, “I hate you.” 

“No, you don’t.”, Adam replies, dropping a kiss on Shiro’s forehead and making his way to his flight instruction course. 

After a few minutes of exasperated silence, Shiro breaks, “If he’s actually bothering you this much, I can talk to someone about it-” 

Keith waves him off dismissively, “No, it’s fine, honestly. Just annoying.” 

“I know he's just pulling on your metaphorical pigtails but-” 

Keith sighs, “He is  _ not.”  _

“Right, whatever you say.” 

\----

  
  


Shiro is leaving. 

Keith expected this, prepared for this, but his pseudo-brother saying his goodbyes still feels a little surreal. 

“I’ll be back before you can say...uh..” 

“What?” 

Shiro frowns, “Hold on I’m trying to think of a space-related pun.” 

Keith snorts, “You’re so old.” 

“Hey, cadet, I’m still your-” 

Keith cuts him off before he can start his fake-tirade about respect while doing a scarily accurate Iverson impression, “Superior officer, yeah, yeah, I heard you the first a  _ million  _ times-” 

“I will turn this spacecraft around-” 

“Come back.” 

Shiro furrows his brow. “I-...What? Of course, I will.” 

“Just...come back.” 

Keith feels small, feels like he might melt into the floor if Shiro doesn’t reply right-

“Always.” 

\---

He doesn’t come back. 

\----

Keith is dishonorably discharged. 

Commander Iverson wears an eyepatch now. 

The two events may or may not be connected. 

\-----

“Who are you?” 

Keith honestly doesn’t know why the fuck he lies like that, but with his brother lying practically motionless in his arms, he can’t bring himself to care about which boys at the Garrison particularly antagonized him. 

“Uh, the name’s  _ Lance _ ?” 

Keith just rolls his eyes and keeps moving, eyes fixed on Shiro’s face and his metal arm and the scar across his nose that hadn’t been there a year ago. 

When the three cadets clamor onto the back of his hoverbike, he isn’t quite sure what he expects. 

_ (It’s certainly not that the markings in the cave he’s been studying for practically a year will light up under Lance’s hands and get them all blasted into space in a robot lion, but hey, shit happens.)  _

\---

After a few months in space, it’s clear Lance’s obnoxiousness was not a result of being locked up in a military institute. Keith has to remind himself on a near-daily basis how catastrophic it would be if he snapped and murdered the blue paladin out of sheer annoyance. 

“So clearly, I’m the Han Solo of this situation.”, Lance says, completely unprompted at dinner one night. 

Keith can’t hold back an eye-roll at that, “Why? Because of your colossal ego?”

Lance scoffs “My sharpshooting and my dashing good looks, obviously.” 

“Right, obviously.”, Keith deadpans. 

Pidge tilts her head, seemingly deep in thought, “Who would I be?” 

Lance replies without a second of pause,  _ how much has he thought about this?  _ “R2D2, duh.” 

Pidge nods in approval “Nice.”

“And Hunk is  _ obviously-”  _

Hunk cuts in, smiling brightly, “Chewbacca.” 

Keith raises an eyebrow, “Uh, what?” 

Lance just waves him off, “Yes, him.” 

Pide speaks after a minute, “Shiro’s Luke, because of the tragic past and the whole being kidnapped by aliens thing” 

_ Luke got kidnapped by aliens? _

Lance’s smile is more amused than anything else as he turns to face Keith, “I guess that makes you-” 

“Don’t” 

Lance continues, ignoring the interruption, “-Leia.” 

Keith just groans, “Why?” 

“The weird hair and the attitude, obviously.” 

He rolls his eyes again, ignoring Shiro muttering that his face will “ _ Get stuck like that”  _ “Obviously.” 

Until the end of the meal, everyone looks at him like he’s missed something monumentally important. 

_ Weird.  _

\----

After a serious briefing, Shiro catches Keith before he can sneak away from the team, “Keith, remember your water bottle if you’re planning to-” 

“Yeah, I get it,  _ mom.”  _

The entire team is staring at them. 

Hunk starts, “Did you just make a joke?” 

Keith stills, “Um, yes?” 

Pidge furrows her brow before coming to a realization, “Hold on, are you two  _ brothers-”  _

Keith rolls his eyes, “As if I’d ever be blood-related to this guy.” 

Shiro snorts and ruffles Keith’s hair a little, “Whatever you say.” 

“We have different last names!”, Keith protests. 

“Okay, fine. Plus we don’t look alike at all-”, Shiro concedes. 

“I mean-”, Pidge interrupts, but Shiro cuts her off. 

“You’re tiny.” 

“You take that back, Takashi, I swear to god-”, Keith practically growls. 

Shiro’s smile turns teasing, “What? What’ll you do? Kick my knees-” 

“I’ll tell Adam!”, Keith snaps, and Shiro’s eyes widen a fraction. 

“From  _ space?”  _

“Okay-” 

Lance cuts off the argument with a startled look on his face, “What. The. Fuck?” 

,Keith raises an eyebrow, “What?” 

,

Lance looks at Keith, again, like he’s missed something, “I didn’t know you could make jokes until like one second ago-” 

“Rude.” 

The blue paladin ignores the interruption, “And now we find out Shiro’s your brother-” 

“He’s not.” 

Hunk pipes up from his slumped position against the wall, “He basically is, dude.” 

“Reminds me of Matt, actually.”, Pidge remarks, and Keith feels himself soften. 

Keith clears his throat, “Well, as fun as that was, I’m going to train.” 

Shiro starts, “Bring a-” 

“Water bottle, yeah, I get it.” 

Keith lets his expression shift to a smirk when he hears Lance ask “Who’s Adam?”, before the door is closing behind him. 

\----

Okay, so Lance was cute, he wasn’t  _ blind,  _ okay? He could admit that. 

What he couldn’t quite bring himself to admit was why it stung a little that the blue paladin felt the need to flirt with every single alien girl they came across on diplomatic missions. 

Celebration parties weren’t new, and neither was Lance getting rejected  _ again.  _ What was new was the burn Keith felt in his chest upon seeing it. 

He almost doesn’t notice Pidge coming to lean on the wall next to him, “Dude.” 

“Yeah?”, He replies far too quickly. 

“You’re gonna burn a hole through Lance’s head if you keep staring at him like that.” 

Keith feels himself flush, “I’m not staring.” 

Pidge rolls her eyes, “Okay, fine, glaring. Are you guys fighting or something?” 

“No.” 

“Oh I get it.”

_ Shit.  _ “No, you-” 

“I mean she’s pretty, but I didn’t think she was really your type-” 

_ What?  _

“Hold on,  _ she _ ?” 

Pidge raises an eyebrow, “Yeah, the girl Lance is currently trying his hardest to have a drink thrown in his face by?” 

He stammers, at a loss, “Oh, I’m...uh, no, she’s not really my type.” 

“I didn’t think so.” 

“I’m gay.”, he hasn’t had to do this in a while, and the words feel a little heavy as they leave his mouth, the only person who knew out here was Shiro. 

“Oh, that makes sense.” 

“What?” 

Pidge clears her throat, “I am too.” 

“Oh, nice.” 

She extends her hand for a silent fist bump, and Keith feels himself grinning before returning it. 

She furrows her brow, “Wait if it’s not the girl then-” 

“Bye, Pidge!”, He practically shouts, just an octave higher than usual at the knowing smirk on her face. 

_ Fuck, that was close.  _

_ \---- _

You’d think saving the universe would be all action all the time, but there were a few moments like this when everything was quiet and they were just people drifting through space trying not to go crazy. Shiro busied himself with reading up on Altean history while Pidge settled on the couch next to him, slamming the keys on her computer like they’d personally wronged her. 

Hunk was in the kitchen, trying to make the newest batch of food goo into something vaguely edible, instructing Lance to pass him ingredients every now and then. Keith sat on the counter, observing just how domestic it all was, like they’d been doing this for decades instead of just several months. 

It was... _ nice.  _

“You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life.”, Lance drawls in an almost impressive Harrison Ford impression. 

_ Almost _

Keith replies before he can stop himself, he  _ has  _ seen the movies about a million times, “I happen to like nice men.” 

Lance’s eyebrows rocket towards his hairline, “I’m a nice man.”

“No, you’re not.” 

Lance just laughs, “Isn’t that the part where they get cut off?” 

Keith nods, “Yep, C3P0.” 

“You’re such a nerd.” 

Keith scoffs, “I knew  _ one  _ line.” 

“Bullshit, I’ll bet you know all of them.” 

Shiro, who apparently was not as engrossed in his book as he was pretending to be, replies across the room, “He does.” 

“Shut up, Shiro.” 

“Lance, the space-cinnamon, please.”, Hunk says, Lance quickly passes him a container with brown powder in it. 

“You could just say cinnamon, I think the space part is implied.”, Keith muses.

Hunk just shrugs, “It’s more fun this way, plus, it doesn’t taste like real cinnamon.” 

Keith nods and continues to sit on the countertop in comfortable silence as Hunk begins to swear over the seemingly burning concoction in the simmering pot on the stove. 

\-----

Shiro’s the first one to approach Keith when he steps out of his lion and into the hangar after a particularly impulsive move during a battle, the rest of the team standing to the side, trying very hard not to look like they were listening, “That was stupid.” 

Keith just sighs, “Those kids are okay.” 

Shiro, for maybe the second time since Keith has met him, rolls his eyes, “You could have  _ died,  _ Keith.” 

“Good!”, he replies quickly retracting the answer when he sees the startled look on Shiro’s face “I mean, not  _ good,  _ but better me than them.” 

Shiro shakes his head, “Better if it’s neither of you, wait for backup next time.” 

“Shiro-” 

Lance cuts in, an accusing finger pointed to Keith’s chest, “Dude, what the hell were you thinking?” 

“I-”, he can barely get a word in before Lance cuts him off. 

“Clearly, you weren’t.” 

“Lance-”, Shiro warns, stepping back slightly. 

Lance groans, face full to the brim with frustration, “No, seriously, why couldn’t you have just  _ waited?”  _

Keith prepares to give the explanation he suspects he will have to give about five more times before anyone on the team really believes him, “They were going to-” 

“I know. I know what they were going to do, and I’m telling you, as your friend and teammate, that you’re an idiot.” 

Keith sighs, “Lance-” 

“Don’t. Look, Keith, I know you have this whole hero complex going on, and it’s super hot and annoying most of the time-” 

Keith flushes as his brain catches up with the actual words coming out of Lance’s mouth, “What-” 

“But we want you alive, me, the team, we need you here.” 

He nods, “Okay.” 

Lance’s expression softens, “Understood?” 

“Thank you.” 

Lance replies by pulling him off the ground in a rib-crushing hug, a few seconds later, the rest of the team joins in, Hunk saying, “Glad you’re okay, dude.”, and Pidge lightly smacking the back of his head and muttering, “Don’t ever fucking do that again.” 

\-----

“Get back here you gay piece of shit!”, Pidge yells, chasing Keith down the hall with a tie in her hand. 

It was  _ another  _ diplomatic ball, except this time they had to dress up. Pidge had been tasked with convincing Keith his (Totally practical) Utility belt and cropped jacket were  _ not  _ proper formal wear. 

Lance stops them, “Woah, Pidge, come on man.”

She raises an eyebrow, “You yourself have called Keith fashionably challenged literally more times than I can count.” 

Keith frowns at that, but shakes his head, “The pants are too tight! Where would I keep my knives?” 

She rolls her eyes, “For the last time, you won’t  _ need  _ any-” 

“Hey, just don’t call people gay as an insult, it’s not cool.”,Lance interjects, cutting her off with an indecipherable expression on his face. 

She blinks, “Uh, what?” 

“Like, I get that we’re in space or whatever but it’s still shitty, gay isn’t synonymous for bad and if you think that-” 

Keith thinks maybe his heart melts a little. 

“Lance, I’m gay.”, Pidge interrupts. 

“I-...oh, right.”, Lance says after a minute. “So why-” 

“I am too.”, Keith replies quickly, deciding not to read into Lance’s face going bright red. 

“Right, well, I’ll just get going then-” 

“Sorry you thought I was a homophobe?”, Pidge offers. 

“No, it’s all good, just a misunderstanding I guess, I mean, I’m bi so…”, he trails off. 

Pidge just smiles, “I mean, what are the odds, they shoot five people into space and  _ four  _ of them are queer.” 

Keith just shrugs, “At least we’ll never have to worry about like, space pregnancy.” 

Lance blinks at him before huffing a laugh, “Yeah, no weird alien babies on our watch!” 

When Lance leaves Keith just stares at the door for a minute, processing. 

“He’s bi?” 

Pidge’s cackling can be heard from all corners of the castle. 

\-----

“Are pockets really so much to ask for?” , Keith groans, Shiro just pats his shoulder, trying and failing to look sympathetic.

When Lance comes in, looking, as fucking usual, amazing. Keith decides life is unfair. 

“They gave  _ you  _ pockets.”

Lance looks at him, long enough that Keith struggles not to squirm under his gaze before saying, “Your hair is in a ponytail.”

“Yes?” 

Lance looks pained, “It looks...nice.” 

“Thank you?”, Keith replies, baffled. 

Shiro clears his throat, “Right, well, we better move out if we want to make it in time.” 

Lance’s eyes narrow, “Why aren’t you wearing the shoes Coran gave us?” 

“No reason.”, Keith responds  _ way  _ too quickly. 

“Keith.” 

“Lance.” 

Lance gasps, realization on his face, “Is there a knife in your dumb go-go boots?” 

“I-...they are  _ not-” _ , Keith stammers, but Lance cuts him off. 

“They are. Am I right?” 

“Maybe.” 

Lance just smirks in the way Keith hates  _ (Read: Kind of loves) _ before Hunk breaks the weird charged silence that has fallen over the room. 

“Uh, guys? If we aren’t in a pod in the next like, ten seconds, I’m pretty sure Allura is gonna feed us to the mice.” 

Lance shakes his head, “The mice love me!” 

Hunk just gestures for them to follow him, and Lance keeps looking at Keith like a cat who caught the canary, like he’s saying “ _ I know something you don’t” _

_ \---- _

  
  


“May I cut in?”, a familiar voice asks. Keith practically sighs with relief. The alien who’d cornered Keith at the beginning of the ball looks dejected but allows Lance to take his place regardless. 

“Thank you.”, Keith says, voice low in case the alien is still nearby. 

Lance shrugs, “Just bros helping bros.” 

Keith rolls his eyes, putting a hand on Lance’s shoulder and interlocking the other with his own, “I hate you.” 

Lance’s hand falls to Keith’s waist as he maneuvers them (Only  _ somewhat  _ clumsily) around the dancefloor, “Just dudes being dudes, just waltzing with my homie-” 

“I’m  _ begging  _ you to stop.”, Keith groans. 

Lance’s grin widens in a way that’s strangely familiar, but not something Keith has ever been on the receiving end of, “There are other things I could make you-” 

Lance proceeds to snap his mouth shut, looking like he’d just been dunked in a bucket of ice-water. 

Keith can only manage an embarrassed laugh, “Oh my god.” 

Lance flushes, eyes fixed on a spot above Keith’s shoulder as his posture goes rigid. “Nope, shut up.” 

“You were about to  _ hit on me! _ ” 

“It was a reflex! Muscle memory!”, Lance replies, face growing more crimson with each passing second. 

Keith snorts and raises an eyebrow, “Oh, really?” 

“Yes! Stop looking at me like that.” 

“Or what?” 

Keith can hardly repress the startled shout that escapes his mouth when Lance drops him into a surprisingly low dip. 

Lance just gives him a shit-eating grin, “What?”

When Keith is upright again and Lance isn’t  _ two inches  _ from his face, he replies, “Nothing.” 

“Are you  _ blushing?”  _

“What? No-...You hit on me!”

“I barely-” 

“Guys.”, Shiro sighs and Keith jumps back in a way that seems  _ very  _ suspicious. 

_ Shit.  _

Lance pointedly looks anywhere except at Keith and Shiro. 

Shiro lowers his voice, “We have to move, Allura says the royals are conspiring with the Galra if we get out of here in time we can-” 

There’s an explosion near the ballroom door.

“Okay, well, fuck that plan, I guess. Watch your back, we can probably commandeer an emergency pod out of here.”, Shiro sounds so serious Keith can’t even make fun of him for swearing. 

` They nod, and Lance gives a mock salute, “See you on the other side, space cadet.”

\----

As expected, Keith finds Lance in the observation deck, looking at the endless expanse of stars with a crease of worry forming between his eyebrows. 

“How’s your head?” 

Lance smirks at that, “Haven’t had any complaints.” 

Keith furrows his brow, “What?” 

“Nothing, nevermind. How’s Pidge?” 

Keith slumps beside him, handing Lance an ice-pack, he’d hit his head in the battle, but it wasn’t serious enough to warrant a visit to the healing pod.“She’s okay, Coran says it’ll only be a couple more hours in the pod.”

“Okay, good. Did you see me out there? I took out like, three guys at once, that was an insane shot, right?” 

Keith huffs a laugh, “Sure it was, Lance.” 

“Oh shut up, you can’t handle how much of a badass ninja sharpshooter I am.”, Lance snaps, rolling his eyes. 

“Not exactly how I would describe you.” 

“Oh really? How would you describe me then?” 

“How about a stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder?”, Keith snarks in his best Carrie Fisher impression  _ (Read: Not great)  _

Lance just laughs, “Who’s scruffy looking?” 

“You really are a nerd.” 

Lance nudges his shoulder, “Hey, now, you started it.” 

“Still.”

After a minute, Lance says, “You know they get together in the end.” 

Keith tries to stop the fond smile from making it’s way onto his face, “I know.” 

Keith realizes two things in the comfortable silence that follows:  _ One,  _ He wants to do  _ this _ more, talking outside the context of constant bickering or mortal peril

And two, he really,  _ really  _ wants to kiss Lance. 

_ Shit. _

\----

If Keith wears his hair in a ponytail now more than is strictly necessary, nobody says anything. 

(And maybe it’s worth it to see that look on Lance’s face whenever he does)

\----

Some things, however, don’t go unnoticed.

“Are you sick?”, Pidge asks, pressing a hand to Lance’s forehead as he waves her off. 

“I’m fine! Seriously guys.”, Lance insists, pulling away from the concerned looks of the green and yellow paladins. 

“That girl was totally hitting on you!” 

“And she was hot!” 

“And you didn’t do anything!”

Keith just stays by the sidelines, humming contently and admiring the scenery. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew why Lance hadn’t flirted with that girl, the reason Lance hadn’t flirted with  _ anyone  _ in weeks. 

Well, with the exception of Keith himself. 

They weren’t dating. That wasn’t it.  _ (Even if Keith privately, embarrassingly wanted it to be) _

But, well...It was a  _ thing.  _ That part Keith was sure of, Lance didn’t hit on any aliens, and Keith blatantly rejected any advances made on him (Not that that was a big change, but still) And sometimes when it was late at night and Keith couldn’t sleep, he wandered up to the observation deck, it was just a  _ coincidence _ that Lance was there too. 

Except it wasn’t. 

Keith watches as Hunk and Pidge continue to pester Lance until the blue paladin sends him a look that says,  _ “Please get me out of this!”  _

“Didn’t Allura say this planet had almost an identical copy to bread?”, Keith interjects. 

Hunks confusion at the interruption gives way to excitement, “Oh yeah!” 

Lance just looks at Keith and mouths,  _ “Thank you.”  _

Pidge and Hunk walk ahead, discussing potential ways to replicate the alien bread on the castle while Lance and Keith hang behind. 

Lance breaks the silence, “So.” 

“So.” 

That stupid flirty grin is back, “Are you wearing space pants? Because-”

Keith cuts him off, trying to will his expression into something like annoyance (Which was really more difficult than it should have been) “Lance.”

“Right, sorry.”, and then, “I’m not good at this.” 

“At what?” 

“Whatever’s going on here.” 

Keith shrugs,  _ casual, casual, just be casual for once.  _ “You’re doing fine from where I’m standing.” 

“Which is where exactly?”, Lance practically groans.

“Right next to you.”, Keith replies, before taking in the strangely awestruck look on Lance’s face and clearing his throat, “Come on, Allura’s gonna kill us if we’re late again.” 

\----

The entire team aside from Shiro, Coran, and Allura was gathered in the space living room, and Keith was beginning not to mind having all the attention on him, as long as he was talking about somebody else, that is-

“And then Adam said-” 

Shiro stands in the doorway, face a little flushed. “Keith!” 

Keith, for the record, does his level best to keep an innocent look on his face, “Yes?”

“No Garrison stories, we have a pact.” 

Keith snorts, “Okay, we definitely don’t have a  _ pact _ .”

Shiro ignores him, “If you’re gonna tell them about  _ me-”  _

“Choose your next words carefully, Takashi.”, Keith cuts him off, even though he knows exactly what the next words out of Shiro’s mouth will be-

“I’ll tell them what you were like.”, The black paladin snaps back, smugly. 

“Sounds like a win-win to me.”, Lance stage whispers to Pidge and Hunk, Keith glares at him. 

“Bring it.” 

“Fine. Before his written fighter-pilot exam, Keith literally taped every page of the textbook to his walls and drank so many espresso shots he had to go to the nurse.” 

“You ripped up a textbook?”, Pidge asks, amusement in her voice. 

“I’m a visual learner! Shut up. One time Takashi and Adam got caught making out in the flight simulator by  _ Iverson _ .” 

Shiro just shudders, “That man is  _ not  _ gay friendly.” 

“In the  _ flight simulator?”,  _ Hunk says through peels of laughter. 

“It was our anniversary and we both had classes to teach! Anyway, one time this guy asked Keith out and he totally thought the dude was trying to start a fight-”

“It was  _ James,  _ he was always trying to start a fight!” 

Shiro tilts his head, “Hm, wonder who else does that? Oh, wait-” 

“Lance asked Meghan Chu out in the mess hall by making a heart out of the shitty Garrison mashed potatoes and putting it on her table!”, Hunk shouts. 

Lance just gives him a look of utter  _ not-at-all-exaggerated _ betrayal, “ _ Why? _ ” 

Hunk lifts his hands in surrender, “I feel like there’s some universal imbalance if Keith and Shiro have more embarrassing stories than you.” 

Lance doesn’t even argue that point, just leans back and sticks his tongue out at the yellow paladin. 

The back and forth continues for a few minutes, until Shiro says, “Well I remember your consistent bitching about a  _ particular cadet  _ who shall not be named.” 

“Okay, first of all, I talked about people besides Lance-” 

“You talked about me?”, Lance asks, and that weird awestruck expression is back. 

Keith tries to force down the blush he  _ knows  _ must be staining his face bright red, “Uh...yeah, sometimes. You made yourself kind of hard not to notice.” 

“ _ Duh,  _ we were rivals.” 

Keith snaps back, “Normal people don’t have rivals!” 

“I thought you didn’t remember me!”, Lance counters. 

And that…. _ was a good point.  _

Keith didn’t know why  _ he  _ hadn’t brought it up before, “Okay, we  _ did _ meet under pretty stressful circumstances, it slipped my mind.” 

Lance opens his mouth, and snaps it shut before a wide grin overtakes his whole face, “You remember me.” 

“I-...Yes?” 

Lance practically skips out of the room, “Gotta go, I’ve got things to plan- I mean, things to do, see ya!” 

  
  
  


_ Well, that was weird.  _

_ \---- _

Lance avoids him for the rest of the week. 

_ (Well, as much as you can avoid someone when you live with them and six other people and operate a magic alien robot together) _

\----

Keith is a lot of things, but patient isn’t one of them. It takes Lance literally cartwheeling out of the room for him to reach the end of his rope, “Okay that’s it.” 

“Look, man, maybe you should-”, Hunk starts, but Keith cuts him off. 

“I get if he doesn’t want to be friends, but what if we have to form Voltron?”, Keith snaps.

Hunk and Pidge exchange a slightly guilty look, whatever Lance’s problem was, they knew. He waits, but neither of them says anything. 

“Whatever-”

“Wait!”, Pidge shouts, “Look, I know he’s being weird, but maybe wait till tomorrow to kick his ass?”

He narrows his eyes, “Why? Don’t we have a mission on Obbautania tomorrow?” 

“Just let him talk to you, dude.”, Hunk practically sighs, looking exasperated. 

Keith groans, as frustrated as he was, he trusted his fellow paladins and whatever bizarre plan they had going on, “Fine.” 

It takes all his willpower not to stomp out of the room.

\----

Okay, fine. Obbautania was beautiful, it was lush and serene and seemingly covered in pink and white flowers, straight out of a romance novel. But Keith was still pissed. 

Hunk had also pointed out that morning that it was their ‘Voltron-versary’, which left a bittersweet taste in all of their mouths, one year away from earth. 

Shiro and Allura’s seemingly flawless diplomacy leave the other paladins extremely bored during negotiations, Keith is pretty sure Pidge is asleep with her eyes open by the end. 

(She’d done that once, it was creepy)

And then Lance, who he’d barely made  _ eye-contact  _ with that week, is pulling him away into the pink foliage, just as the Obbautarian sun (suns?) was beginning to set. And boy, is Keith ready to give the blue paladin a piece of his mind. Too bad that plan goes out the window as soon as Lance opens his mouth. 

“So you’re into me.” 

“I-...What?”, Keith stammers. 

Lance’s smile dims a little, “You like me, right?” 

“What does that have to do with anything?”, Keith practically hisses. 

Lance raises his hands in mock surrender, “Okay, wow, you’re mad, I get it...god this was stupid-” 

“What was stupid?” 

“I-...Okay, you have to promise not to laugh.” 

Keith nods despite himself.

Lance takes a deep breath, “I like you, I really,  _ really  _ like you. And then Allura told us about this super romantic planet and...I should’ve known you wouldn’t be into something like this-” 

Keith registers that maybe, just maybe, he misjudged the kind of conversation they were having. “What were you planning, Lance?” 

The blue paladin sighs, “We’ve been doing this flirty thing for a few months, and believe me, I’m super into...whatever’s going on here. And I can’t really take you on dates or anything but I wanted to ask if you would maybe want to be like...a thing?” 

“A thing?”, Keith repeats. 

“Yes, a thing, my boyfriend, my boo, bae, the light of my life, significant-” 

It’s stupid, it’s  _ so  _ stupid and charming and endearing and so  _ Lance.  _ Keith has to kiss him, because really, what else can he do?

It’s just a brush of lips, so quick and barely-there that Keith would think he missed if it weren’t for the tell-tale way Lance’s face explodes in red, “Uh-” 

Keith cuts him off, “Yes.”, he continues, “I’ll be your boyfriend.” 

“Wait,  _ really _ ?” 

Keith rolls his eyes, “Yes, did you honestly think I’d say no?” 

“I wasn’t even sure you liked me until a  _ week  _ ago and...wait, how long  _ have  _ you liked me?” 

Lance’s eyes grow wider each second Keith spends in embarrassed silence, “Um-” 

“Holy shit. You’re totally head over heels for me.”, Lance is smirking, and Keith has the ridiculous urge to kiss it off his face. 

Keith snaps, “No, shut up-  _ stop laughing _ \- Let’s get back to the team,  _ honey _ .”, the pet name dripping with sarcasm. 

Lance offers his arm, “Lead the way,  _ darling.”  _

Keith scowls but takes it. 

“Fuck off.”

  
  


\---

  
  


It takes a few months, a few close-calls in battle and late nights on the observation deck, but Keith finally says it. 

“I love you.” 

“I know.” 

“Hey-” 

“Sorry! It was right there.” 

Keith frowns, ignoring the overwhelming surge of affection he feels for the blue paladin. 

“I love you too.” 

  
  


  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated! Thanks for reading!


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